The ultimate platform for technology education Teachers Meeting educational objectives Administrators High return on investment Students Learning is fun Home schoolers Independent study Self learners Unlimited challenges
Track your robot’s movements and sensor data from your PC or laptop (via wireless link) or from anywhere over the web. Add a video cam to your robot and see what it sees, wherever it goes. Have your robot send an e-mail message to you when it encounters an obstacle it cannot find an alternate path around.

Students, parents, teachers and instructors   Incorporate the SR4 Robot into your home and/or classroom studies for computer and information technology foundation skills in Linux, Windows, Java, Networking, Web and Web services, XML, Macromedia Flash and Databases.

Every one of these skills are currently in demand in the computer and information technology (IT) fields and will also enhance most every other career students are preparing for. Start at an introductory level in areas of specific interest, or pursue each and every technology on the robot to the most advanced levels that fit your particular objectives.

Consult with our discussion of Building Curriculums that provides potential resource material for course-work in the technology of the SR4 mobile intelligent autonomous robot.

The nature of a mobile robot such as the SR4 is that it can be used over a wide range of student age groups for various purposes, from elementary through high school level to university and post graduate work.

For elementary school students, the robot becomes the student and the students become the teacher and watch how much the students learn in teaching the robot arithmetic, grammar or speaking a second language. Younger students who work with the robot will also quickly gain mastery and self-confidence in programming the robot in these “learning” tasks, using Robot Control Language (RCL), a skill that comes to them as easily as picking up and playing a Gameboy device.

High school students find that programming and working with the technology on the robot is far more interesting than pursuing many of the same skills at a desktop computer screen alone. Although, in truth, work with the robot is integrated with existing computers at home and/or in the classroom, so that studies involving the robot have the potential to enhance much of the existing technology curriculum, while adding additional possibilities. With the SR4 Robot, students can hone their skills in Linux, Java, Wireless networking, Windows, HTML, XML and databases, while also dabbling with electronics, sensors and mechanical systems, if that is where their aptitudes and interests lay.

One very potent motivator for high school students is to involve them in designing, developing and actively supporting applications for use by the elementary students within the local school district. Older students recruited as mentors and tutors in this fashion for younger students will gain as much from the experience as they impart.

There are few colleges and universities in the U.S. that do not have at least an active robot club associated with the school. Many of these and other schools are finding ways to integrate robots and robotics into their other curriculums. The SR4 Robot has a great deal to offer students and faculty, by virtue of the broad spectrum of technology integrated into the robot, as a platform for many of the technology skills taught in computer science and other technology related curriculums.

(For further information see Building Curriculums.)